foobar is awsome. However, it's greatest short comming is that it is severely crippled untill one invests hours to set it up. I sincerly believe that foobar's download hits could easly surpass that of winamp in a very short amount of time if it simply had an easy "useable" install. Perhaps there could be one with "mass user" settings and another for "audiophile" settings. I know that there is some kind of liscensing issue with settings but the developers of foobar ship it with "some" settings set. There was a start with 8.3 to have a "bundle" install but it needs to be taken one step further and have a more robust "basic" setup as well. Basic things like having a column in columns UI for each tag already setup. (not necessaryly shown but already setup) It's much easier for people to limit things down then have to enter everything on their own.

Perhaps a team could be put together and be responsible for compiling the components and seting them up. I know I'd volunteer for that. It'd take the time off the devs. Heck we could even vote on some of the basic setups.

while i'm at it a very usefull feature would be some way to "turn off" components without haveing to take them out of the directory.

You can clearly see that it's moving in that direction in v0.9. v0.83 had many useful third party components but a bit bloated config interface. I think it's a matter of time before third party components get included in the default install. And who knows what v1 will have in store for us.

I concur!

The basic setup should have some generic color coding for the playlist also.

I can understand why some people might want this. But customizing comes at a cost, is that it takes time to read and tweak everything to your liking. Otherwise you become just that, a "out of the box" type of program, which is the same and generic. I mean it's great to have programs like foobar around that allow the flexibility, unlike some other mainstream media players.

I agree, give the purists their minimum bare bones install, but also have another install with a few of the most popular components (columns ui, album art, kernel streaming, a few dsps, etc), already configured with some sort of default settings to take it beyond the notepad look that scares people off. Would be nice if the included components were up to date versions too.

I 100% agree. Foobar is a rewarding program but it's maddeningly presented & supported. (And while we're dreaming -- wouldn't a component room a la Mozilla's extension rooms, with auto update and everything -- be fantastic?)

I would add that this is simply not a convenience issue. By providing a dowload that has some basic plugins pre-packaged and configured would result in a lot more users trying and ultimately staying with foobar, particularly after they begin to understand its merits. The end result would be a much larger and vibrant user base and more rapid and substantial third party development. An obvious real benefit to its user base.